White House Refusing to Release Names of Gay Invitees for Hate Crimes Reception

It's not entirely clearly why, but the White House is refusing to release the names of gay invitees for the hate crimes signing reception that took place last night in Washington. I've tried to get the list and failed repeatedly. We know which members of Congress were invited, and which members of the Shepard and Byrd families. But nothing about any gays invited at all to a reception honoring the inclusion of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender and disability to America's already existing hate crimes law. (And for that matter, we don't even know if any people with disabilities or trans people were invited, either -- women and African-Americans you could see on the news feed.)  The White House is simply refusing to release any of the names. This is odd.  And it's not helping already strained relations between the Obama administration and the gay community on what was supposed to be our big day.

Read the entire post at AMERICAblog gay.

Follow John Aravosis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/aravosis

Comments

[BlackJAC]

When Iraq veterans started denouncing the grand holy crusade in Iraq, Rush Limbaugh obtained their contact information so his dittoheads could death-threaten them over it. I suspect something similar is in play here.

[Belthazar]

This is typical of his writings. He wants so desperately to manufacturer evidence of a growing rift between the POTUS and gay community that he would take a moment of celebration and try to turn it into a slight against the LGBT community. It's called reaching John. Never mind he was signing "Hate Crime" legislation including LGBTs that GWB threaten to veto and that the Shepard's has been working on for years. He simply one of those people that "you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don’t" so I say just do what you damn well please.

[miamorphos]

I went to the AmericaBLOG site and Aravosis began to respond to every post I made. He asked me if I was being paid to comment, which I didn't understand until he finally laid the cards on the table: I was an employee of the White House, and I had been ordered to post comments on his blog. Then he banned me from AmericaBLOG.

Aravosis has a strange personal vendetta against Obama. He was originally an anti-Obama activist, after being a Republican staffer for many years. I sometimes wonder what he's really up to, but his actions against me on his discussion board make me suspect he has a dangerous fixation on our President and will stop at nothing to make him look bad.

[clarryr]

Where does one go for a list of possible gay or disabled invitees? That is, how would the White House know that they were inviting gay or disabled participants? Do these people have any right to privacy in your estimate? Why do you ask about just the gay and disabled? Are you planning some form of retribution against them? Why do you have a right to know the sexual orientation or physical impairments of White House guests?

[LilGlow]

This has to be a joke....

This bill was about all communities and dealing with hate crimes NOT just the gay community. Too bad you didn't get it or that you refused to get it!

[Mike Kilpatrick]

I have a feeling the HRC knows.

[HawaiiBill]

You're kidding, right John? Do you think they have a sign-in sheet with a check box for "Gay? Straight? None of your Damn Business?". When I saw the headline, I clicked the blog to see if there might have been a good reason for wanting to know...and then realized how ridiculous the whole thing was in the first place.

With all that we are dealing with in this civil rights struggle, maybe time would be better served on something that actually matters?

[Mike Kilpatrick]

I get your point Hawaii surely this legislation benefits all Americans. The victims but also friends and families of victims as well as society as a whole.

[PlaceboStudman]

Damn, no disabled either? Okay somebody needs to start finding out what the white house is hiding

[whawhawha]

Get me the list of straight people if you can.